(The Center Square) – A Republican motion to invest $6 million into Youth Apprenticeship Grants in the 2025-27 Wisconsin biennial state budget was adopted 12-4 by the Joint Finance Committee on Tuesday.

Democrats, however, balked because they thought the investment wasn’t enough.

The program, coordinated through the Department of Workforce Development, allows students to receive paid, work-based learning opportunities while in school and possibly receive high school and college credit as well.

In the 2023-25 state budget the grant program received $19 million in funding, according to the Workforce Development’s summary of provisions.

According to Joint Finance Cochairman Howard Marklein, R-Spring Green, the investment is necessary to ensure the program’s continued growth.

“This has been a successful program,” Marklein said at a press briefing before the committee’s executive session. “We currently have 11,000 students participating in that program. Two years ago that number was 8,200, so we’ve seen significant growth in that.”

Marklein also announced investments in the Early College Credit Program and $500,000 in Workforce Training Grants, “specifically in high-demand fields” such as the health care fields, and “primarily nursing.”

However, Democrats on the panel who had filed a motion to invest $12 million in the Youth Apprenticeship Grant program pushed back on the Republican-drawn investment motion. They said the lower $6 million investment would be “gutting” the grant program in comparison to the Democrat motion.

Committee Cochairman Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, fired back, saying $6 million is a realistic investment legislators can make while living “within our means” to avoid “reckless spending.”